Search

The nematode Xiphinema index is, economically, the major virus vector in viticulture, transmitting specifically the Grapevine Fanleaf Virus (GFLV), the most severe grapevine virus disease worldwide. The management of this disease has long been to use soil fumigation, harmful for both the applicator and the environment. The objective of this study was to evaluate an alternative approach using plants to reduce vector nematode populations between uprooting and replanting. Of thirty botanical species, tested in previous greenhouse trials, the seven best performing plants were evaluated for their capacity to reduce X. index populations in soil compared to bare soil in 5 field trials on different soil types in Bordeaux and Burgundy. In most trials, sown fallows reduced the number of X. index nematodes more efficiently than bare soil. All plants tested in field, except Trifolium pratense, showed their efficacy in field on survival of nematodes X. index but this efficiency varied according to species and site. The best results were obtained with Medicago hybride, Tagetes minuta, Avena sativa and Vicia villosa. Over the following years we will be evaluating if a decrease of the populations of the nematode vector does lead to a significant drop or delay of GFLV contamination for the newly planted vines.

Scaphoideus titanus, a leafhopper native to North America and invasive in Europe, is the vector of the Flavescence dorée phytoplasma, the causal agent of the most important form of grapevine yellows in European vineyards. We studied 10 polymorphic microsatellite loci and a 623 bp fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase II gene in native S. titanus from north-eastern America and introduced European populations, to elucidate the colonization scenario. Consistent with their recent history, invasive European populations were less genetically diverse than American populations for both types of markers, suggesting a recent bottleneck. Significant isolation by distance was detected between American populations but not between European populations. None of the European mitochondrial haplotypes was found in the American vineyards, from which they are assumed to have originated. The precise source of the invasive S. titanus populations therefore remains unclear. Nevertheless, the high heterozygosity of North-East American populations (which contained 92% of the observed alleles) suggests that this region is part of the native range of S. titanus. Clustering population genetics analyses with microsatellite and mitochondrial data suggested that European populations originated from a single introduction event. Most of the introduced populations clustered with populations from Long Island, the Atlantic Coast winegrowing region in which Vitis aestivalis occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]